So you’re against fighting in hockey but you would have liked to see the Canucks respond to Marc Methot’s hit. A bit hypocritical, isn’t it?
You don’t like the violence, yet when your Canucks are involved, you don’t see things as objectively.
And if you’re against “staged fighting,” or scrums after hits, you’re still being hypocritical.
What is it that you want? If a player is suitably riled up by what’s happening, yet not part of an after-hit scrum, it’s ok? What does that even leave?
Either accept fighting or don’t. If you do, you don’t get to choose when the players drop their gloves.
Sometimes it may happen right off the opening face-off. Sometimes you’ll see it as “staged”. Sometimes the two will have had a history that goes back months or years that led to this game-opening fight. Does anyone besides the two fighters really know?
If you haven’t seen Methot’s hit yet, or want to watch it again, here it is.
Simple fact: Henrik was turning to play the puck as Methot approached. He was going through with the hit whichever way Sedin was facing upon impact, and it was sheer bad luck and unfortunate timing that resulted in the boarding penalty.
In a blog post by Jason Botchford, Sedin said as much:
“We rarely put ourselves in a position to get hit with a cheap shot,” Henrik said. “(Last night), I didn’t see that guy coming. I wasn’t 100 per cent ready. That’s when these things happen. You rarely see me or Danny take those cheap shots.
“It’s up to us.”
You, the hardcore Canucks fan, and I, the hockey purists agree: someone needed to step-up and show that under no circumstances can anyone take liberties with the team’s captain.
They did try, though. From Kevin Bieksa:
“There were people who went over to him. And after the two of us challenged him, he said no to us. You either take an instigator on him or you play the game. You have to pick your spots. We decided to do that.”
Hockey fans and experts complain about the instigator penalty all the time and now it becomes clear why. It rendered 2 players useless in their attempts to police the game. Really, it rendered fighting useless.
I might have accused you of being hypocritical earlier, but you’re no Gary Bettman. While allowing fighting in the sport, he kills its effectiveness with the instigator rule.
Ask Don Cherry. Hockey hypocrisy is rampant.
-Post by Head to the Net. To read more exclusive Canucks coverage, read and follow: Head to the Net & @HeadtotheNet
Follow Channels and Categories